New York Times: “In a memo on Sunday, Ms. Gillibrand’s campaign suggested that her fund-raising had been hampered by a continuing backlash to her decision in 2017 to call for the resignation of a fellow Democratic senator, Al Franken of Minnesota, over sexual harassment allegations.”

From the memo: “There’s no question that the first quarter was adversely impacted by certain establishment donors — and many online — who continue to punish Kirsten for standing up for her values and for women.”

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) “defended her decision to call on former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign after allegations of unwanted touching and kissing were made against him,” CNN reports.

Gillibrand said that she made the decision to help push him out because “my silence meant I was defending him and carrying his water, which I was unwilling to do.”

She added: “Enough was enough. Al Franken is entitled to whatever process wanted, if he wanted to say and wait six months for his ethics hearing. His decision was to resign. My decision was not to remain silent.”

“Nearly a year after he resigned his U.S. Senate seat amid sexual misconduct allegations, Al Franken is testing whether he can make a comeback in the #MeToo era,” the AP reports.

“The former Saturday Night Live funnyman released a podcast on health care this week, just days after a Thanksgiving Day Facebook post in which he mused how much he missed ‘being in the fight every day.’”

Said Franken, on his podcast: “When I left the Senate I said I was giving up my seat but not my voice, and after the midterm elections I thought I’d start experimenting with ways to make my voice heard.” He ended by saying: “Maybe I’ll do another one, I don’t know.”

Former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) “is staying silent in the face of attacks on his ex-colleague, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who has been shunned by major Democratic donors and criticized heavily online after calling for Franken’s resignation last year in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations,” BuzzFeed News reports.

Al Franken: “It wasn’t that long ago that nearly every Trump tweet included a NO COLLUSION! But those have become few and far between since Giuliani came up with ‘collusion isn’t a crime.’ The thing is, collusion IS a crime, if you collude with somebody to break a law. That’s called ‘conspiracy’… You can’t get out of a crime by finding a synonym.”

“If that were the case, all any criminal defense lawyer would need is a thesaurus… This is the kind of insult to everyone’s intelligence that Trump specializes in.”

“That means a lot to me. It was very moving for me. It was very gratifying. I put my heart in the job. I miss the whole job. I loved that job, I loved the job as Senator. … It was very meaningful for me and bittersweet, I would like to still be there.”

— Former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), quoted by WCCO, responding to a crowd in Minnesota during his first public appearance since resigning.

New York Times: “A prominent donor to the Democratic Party says she is considering withdrawing support for senators who urged their colleague Al Franken to resign after he was accused of sexual misconduct. The donor, Susie Tompkins Buell, has been one of the Democratic Party’s most generous supporters for decades.”

“As I leave the Senate, I have to admit that it feels like we’re losing the war for truth. Maybe it’s already lost. If that’s what happens, then we have lost the ability to have the kinds of arguments that help build consensus.”

— Sen. Al Franken (D-MN), quoted by the Washington Post, in his final speech on the Senate floor.

“At least four senators are urging Al Franken to reconsider resigning, including two who issued statements calling for the resignation two weeks ago and said they now feel remorse over what they feel was a rush to judgment,” Politico reports.

“Franken’s unusual timeline — in his departure announcement he said he’d go ‘in the coming weeks,’ without setting a date — has fed the fleeting hopes that there’s still time to reverse course… People familiar with Franken’s plans said he has not changed his mind and intends to formally resign in early January.”

Former Minnesota Gov. Arne Carlson (R) told Minnesota Public Radio that Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) should rescind his planned resignation and allow a formal ethics probe to continue in order to preserve due process.

Said Cassidy: “There’s no due process for Franken. He decided to accept being drummed out… I’m not defending him. You just can’t help but observe what I’m saying is true.”

David Axelrod: “Strange principle is emerging: If you admit misconduct, you resign. But if you deny it, however compelling or voluminous the testimony against you, you continue in office-or on to office-with impunity?”

Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) announced his resignation from the U.S. Senate “in the coming weeks,” citing the “irony in the fact that I am leaving while a man who has bragged on tape about his history of sexual assault sits in the Oval Office.”

He said he gave the “false impression” that he had admitted to sexual harassment, which he denies.

Said Franken: “I know in my heart that nothing I have done as a Senator, nothing, has brought dishonor on this institution.”

“But that appointment would be just the start of a huge upheaval in Minnesota.”

“Part of the reason Smith could be heading to the Senate, the sources said, is because she has indicated no interest in running for Congress in the past and would not run for the remainder of Franken’s term, which expires in 2020, in a 2018 special election. That would clear the way for a wide-open Democratic primary next year if Franken steps down.”

Franken is only partway through a second term and had only recently started to become a larger voice on the national stage, particularly with the publication of a new book. But the incidents of alleged sexual misconduct have become too damaging for him to continue. Franken has said he will make an announcement on Thursday: It should be that he is resigning.

If this is to be an actual turning point in our culture, there must be real and lasting consequences to behaviors that never should have been accepted. That these incidents came so late in Franken’s life should make him all the more accountable. Instead, he has mostly offered hollow apologies that failed to acknowledge what happened.

About Political Wire

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Praise for Political Wire

"There are a lot of blogs and news sites claiming to understand politics, but only a few actually do. Political Wire is one of them."

-- Chuck Todd, host of "Meet the Press"

"Concise. Relevant. To the point. Political Wire is the first site I check when I’m looking for the latest political nugget. That pretty much says it all."

-- Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the Rothenberg Political Report

"Political Wire is one of only four or five sites that I check every day and sometimes several times a day, for the latest political news and developments.”

-- Charlie Cook, editor of the Cook Political Report

"The big news, delicious tidbits, pearls of wisdom -- nicely packaged, constantly updated... What political junkie could ask for more?"

-- Larry Sabato, Center for Politics, University of Virginia

“Political Wire is a great, great site.”

— Joe Scarborough, host of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”

“Taegan Goddard has a knack for digging out political gems that too often get passed over by the mainstream press, and for delivering the latest electoral developments in a sharp, no frills style that makes his Political Wire an addictive blog habit you don’t want to kick.”

— Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post

“Political Wire is one of the absolute must-read sites in the blogosphere.”

— Glenn Reynolds, founder of Instapundit

“I rely on Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire for straight, fair political news, he gets right to the point. It’s an eagerly anticipated part of my news reading.”